10. Bruniquel Cave Chambe
Inside of the Bruniquel Cave, in the south-west of France, scientists have discovered a chamber with ring-shaped structures made of stalagmites, both broken and whole. A sort of a small-scale Stonehenge, but with stalagmites instead of big rocks.
At first, they carbon-dated the area to around 47,000 years ago, but they recently used a different kind of method. With uranium-thorium dating (sounds awesome, btw!), they managed to date the area to 176,000 years ago – three and a half times the original dating! Now, the only humans who lived there in those days were the Neanderthals, and scientists concluded that Neanderthals must have been the ones to make the stalagmite structures in the cave.
This is a very important discovery, because it helped scientists realize that Neanderthals were going deep down into the caves, as opposed to earlier findings. The chamber inside Bruniquel Cave gives us the opportunity to learn more about the lives of first humans, and broaden our view on our Neanderthal ancestors.
9. Noah’s Ark Mosaic
During excavations undertaken in an ancient synagogue in Israel Lower Galilee, scientists discovered a well-preserved mosaic depicting scenes from the Old Testament. Although the title, Noah’s Ark Mosaic, makes it sound like it comes straight from the Ark itself, it actually depicts the scenes connected to Noah’s journey and the Ark, hence – Noah’s Ark mosaic. This mosaic contains depictions of pairs of animals, including donkeys, bears and lions, and it was found in the ancient Jewish village of Huqoq.
This mosaic was found in the form of two panels, with one panel depicting a scene from Moses’ parting of the Red Sea, with soldiers who are being swallowed by gigantic fish. What’s really fascinating about this archeological discovery is that it’s pretty rare in its category. Experts in the field agree that there aren’t many mosaics dating from that period (5th century AD) which depict these kinds of scenes. In fact, there are only two known synagogues which contain such mosaics – one is present-day Syria (which depicts a different scene) and the other in Israel (which is pretty fragmented and not very well preserved). All of this makes the newly found mosaic a one-of-a-kind discovery! Who knows, maybe there will be more of them to come.
8. A “Russian doll” Pyramid
Russia and the pyramids? How does this make any sense? Well, it will soon! The Kukulkan pyramid, located in the state of Yucatan, in present-day Mexico, offers much more than the eye can tell. It is not only one pyramid, but – wait for it – three pyramids! One inside of another, inside of another, inside of another! This is why many refer to it as the “Russian doll” among fellow pyramids, as it resembles the one-inside-of-another concept of the famous Matryoshka dolls.
While researching, scientists used a very useful method called electrical resistivity, during which they passed electrical waves through the pyramidal structure and measures the degree of resistivity. The results were nothing short of amazing – it turned out that the Kukulkan pyramid (also known as El Castillo – the Castle) had two more pyramids inside of it!
The scientists found out that the two smaller pyramids were built much earlier, which means that the whole three-level structure wasn’t built at the same time, but over a course of several centuries. The smallest was built around 550AD, the middle one three centuries later, and the outermost one somewhere in the 12th or 13th century. It seems that the Maya people can still pull a surprise on us. Kudos!
7. Antikythera Man
One of the largest sea wrecks of the ancient world is probably the Antikythera shipwreck, which happened around 65BC. It was discovered in 1900, off the coast of the island of the same name. The find was truly a wonderful one, as there were many different items from the ancient times, including bronze statues, a lot of treasure, and probably the most important item of all – the Antikythera Mechanism, widely considered as the world’s first computer!
But recently, a big international team comprised of many scientists discovered something new in the